About Me

Monday, December 19, 2011

first things first.... MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! I HOPE YOU ALL ENJOY THE SEASON OF THE BIRTH OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUCRISTO! NEVER FORGET WHAT ENORMOUS BLESSINGS WE HAVE BECAUSE OF HIM, IF YOU THINK ABOUT THE GOSPLE THERE IS NO OTHER WAY IN WHCIH WE CAN BE SAVED AND RETURN TO LIVE WITH OUT FATHER ABOVE, NONE!!!!

This week has been really good and really frustrating all at the same time!!!

we have the baptism of the 2 twins this week on wednesday and we are so so so excited! we cant wait to finally have some success in the hardest area in the mission so far, but we never give up and never stop working so that we can bring people unto christ! Well the two twins passes the baptism interveiws this week and everthing is all ready for the service this week!!!! pray for them and for us so that everything continues to go well and that we will keep them successful this week....

we get to change rooms this 28th of december and we are going to make a contract with the new land lady so that we can upgrade rom the room that we have right now because it is quite the humble living haha but none the less we are all excited for that one!

This week for christmas we will be going to a multizone conference in Talara, which is 3 hours from here, it should be a good time, we get to sing some spanish carols and eat some good food and then return to work so not a big deal! haha

another thing really cool that happened this week is that i got to go to Lima with the other North American elders in the mission! it was awesome we went on a little mini vacation! So we left here in Zarumilla wednesday in the morning and elder frame and i took the 6 hour bus ride to Piura together so that we could at least have some kind of company for the long ride. never before have i felt motion sickness but for some reason on this bus i was not feeling well, i think its because it was really bumpy the entire 6 hours... but we all servived so dont worry, we flew to lima that night at 9 and got into lima at 10 30... we were shuttled to a hotel and it was really nice! we finally got a hot shower!!!! THE HOT SHOWER WAS ONE OF THE BEST THINGS EVER!!!!! we shopped for a bit and mosied around till bed time, it was really cool, there were 9 of us elders and we all were having a blast just relaxing in the hotel talking. The next morning it was business as usual. we were up at 6 and ready to leave the hotel by 7.

Well i brought this little carry on bag so that i could haul around all the stuff for me and elder frame, when we were leaving the hotel non of the other elders really could communicate well with the manager and we needed to sign all the receipts for the hotel and so i was stuck talking to him for a while, finally we got it all worked out and while i was talking all the other elders had loaded up in the bus to take us to the immigration headquarters... they were calling me to hurry and i took off and grabbed my back pack and forget my bag at the hotel... when i got to the immigration i remembered i didnt have my bag and was so worried because it had my wallet and journal and all kinds of important things! talked to the Hermana who was our guide and she called the hotel and informed me that someone had my bag and would have it ready at the airport when we got to the lima airport to leave. so i wasnt worried anymore.

Immigration was not the greatest thing in the world it was litterally six hours of sitting in this little building hearing a bunch of angry peruvians argue random documnent points and make our wait a lot longer but thats all good thats why we have pacientce! haha we were waiting all day and didnt get breakfast so everyone was a little on edge when we were there! elder frame and i deceided to make the best of our time and read the scriptures together in spanish and spoke to some interesting people about the gosple! its amazing people have never heard about jose smith or the restauration!

we got all the paper work done after about 3 hours of line after line and then we went and sat in another waiting room for 3 more hours so that we could get our dni... which is basically a peruvian id, so ya you know that i am a leagalized peruvian citizen right now!!! haha i sent out a group of pictures of about 8 or so, so i hope you all get them!!!

well finally the day was over at interpol and we got to go to McDonalds!!!!!!!!!!!!! i forgot all about fast food here because people where i am at dont even know what mcdonalds is so that just goes to show how cool it was for us to go! we were all pretty excited! its not really the same here, they dont ahve chicken nuggets they are chicken feet but you get the jist its close enough!

then we got to go to the Lima temple for about 15 minutes and take some pictures and look around before having to leave for the airport, thats always a great experience! the temple is so beautiful inside and out! if you arent going to the temple know you should be!!!! got at least once a week!!!!! i promise you will receive blessing from the lord! after that we all got shuttled quite quickly to the airport and got unloaded so that we could prepare for our flight and get all our stuff done, we got to the airport at about 4pm our flight was scheduled to leave at 5.20 and board at 5...

i thought with an hour i had plenty of time to wait for the driver to bring my bag, to shorten the story, between a crazy anount of phone calls and 45 minutes later at 445... i was freaking out because time was short and we hadnt had any sign of the driver with the badg... we deceided to say a prayer and all got together and offered up a sincere pray to get the bag there in time. the other elders couldnt miss the flight and deceided they needed to leave to board the plane and if the bag didnt come i would miss the flight and call the president to get on the next flight to piura, being as we always needed a comp; elder christensen took the bullet and said he would miss the flight with me!! but we were going to need to miss the flight, because we had said a prayer and we had faith enough to move mountains... elder farmer told me the plane was leaing at 520 and if i wasnt on it by then call the president and wait for him... i began to run all up and down the car pool lanes watching and shouting for the driver!!!! i was so worried, this bag had all of my valuables! i couldnt leave it in lima.... at 525 i was felt so empty in my stomach, i was going to miss the plane, but my faith was still strong!!! i ran over in a corner of the parking lot and got down on my knees in front of everyone! i didnt care who was watching!!! i needed to plead to my lord above and thats what i did... in the exact instant that i said the word amen, i heard the voice of someone shout "elder!!!" i looked up and saw an older senor running with my bag in the back of the parking loit... this was at 530... i ran and grabbed it and thanked him and yelled for elder christensen who had just gone to tell the president we missed the flight... i yelled "elder i got it run!!!" we took off jumping over people and carts and trying not to hurt anyone! the escalater was full so we sprinted up the stairs.... at this time it was 535... the plane should be gone, but i knew the lord was testing my faith...

elder christensen and i took off running as fast as we could through all these people! we showed our tickets at the main gate and then had to go through security but i didnt have time for security and was thinking if i hopped the lines i could sprint to the boarding door and explain there, so thats what i deceided to do, i jumped the line ropes at sercurity and was to my suprise promptly tackled by a security officer! haha it didnt work to say the least, i explained the problem and they rushed me throught the line i literally stripped everything with metal as fast as i could! and ran through the scanner! after that i dressed with my blet and jsut grabbed my stuff and took off for the protal, gate 14... i got to the door as soon as they were shutting it, at this point i was sweating perfusly and looked like a beaten train wreck and was out of breath and just said, "pro favor, yo necesito hacer ese aveon." which means, please i need to make this plane, she let me through and i ran down the stairs onto the deck for the plane, when i turned the corner, i see elder frame stalling the entire crew trying to keep the door open as long as he could, because like me, he had faith i would come. faith is all you need! haha I MADE THE FLIGHT! there is no way it should have been there, it was 545, 25 minutes after departure time! the lord was looking out for me. i walked onto the plain with numbness all over my boy just exauhsted emotionally and physically. throught my hands in the air and smiled... i was greeted by 7 other smiling elders all happy to see me. the other passengers could see and it was apparent the struggle i had just overcome!

i sat down in my seat and with an overwhelming rush of emotions let out a silent prayer accompanied by a few small tears, the lord had promised me if i was faithful and endured to the end i would make that flight. when 15 minutes after the time the plane should have been gone, i had faith, when running through the lima international airport i had faith! everything was going to work out, the lord was testing me and my faith and i had passed. i was confiedent in my lord and savior jesus christ and my eternal heavenly father! i offered one of the most sincere and thankful prayers in my life and knew he was listening saying to me... "congrats my son, i am proud of you."

the lord will always test us, in ways that may be strange or we may not understand, but if we are faithful we will always receive the blessings he promises and we will be successful, as the lords sacred witness and servant, i know this church is true! without a doubt in my mind jesus is the christ! the atonment really happened! we are sons and daughters of our father above and he loves us! i know the book of mormon is true! there is no other way in which we can have the plenitud of the restaured gosple than through the prophet jose smith! this is the work of my master jesucristo! i spend everyday trying to share this joy with other people and it is the greatest life anyone could ever live.. we experience daily miracles in our lives, at times we are blinded to look for them but they are always there and we will always be protected! this is the devine kingdom of god, i know this without doubt and would die to share this message... this church is true, nothing else....

well i cant think of anything else and i am out of time so i love you all remember the truth of this gospel!

this has been qutie the week, i have now finished my first 3 months and first transfer and we are close to the new year! what an exciting time of the year yay! here the weather never stops getting hotter and we are just baking here, it is a different experience to be dripping sweat and teaching in a small dirt hut and be teaching the restauration! but it is the best ever!!!!! there is nothing greater than the mission it is the hardest thing in the entire world but it is also the most rewarding!!!

this week we witnessed a very intense car chase between the police and 3 armed suspects! it was soooo cool, they were drifting all over the place in the dirt and the suspects hopped the curb and crashed the front of the bumper but kept going! haha they pulled out and got away from the cops! it was so funny, but they went north to a small town by equador and were caught there! justice at its finest!

we had interveiws with the Presidnet this week and he is really excited for me and elder ipaz because we are getting along a lot better and starting to see great results! This sunday we will be holding the baptismal service for Liced and LLovana Huamani! they are 9 year old twins, their mother is a inactive and their father is an investigator! they attended church this week and after we met with their father and received permission to baptise them! it is so awesome! they asked me to preform the ordinance so i will be having my first baoptisms this sunday! pray hard for me!!! haha i was told by a stepbrother of mine ...travis holtby... that my first baptisms would need to be for him! we made a sign and are going to take a picture with the girls and me in the baptismal clothes and send it to you!!! these are for you buddy! i love you!!!! haha

also we are working with the goverment to fix matrimony papers for a señora named Matilda, she is an old old investigator from 5 years ago who lost contact with the church becuase she couldnt be baptised with the problem in her paperwork! so we are doing everything possible to help! we think we have a solution and she is going to get baptised in january or febuary! we are praying very fervently for her and her pareja!

we have an investigator named william who is great! we meet with him almost everyday and he has a fetcha for the 25th! CHRISTMAS!!!! we are so excited! we are going to a multi zone conference in talara which is 3 hours away on the 23rd and then hurrying back here for the service! we hope all goes as according to plan and he is baptised!!!!

we got 2 new missionaries! one from nicaragua and the other is from argentina! they are great! elder silva and martinez! matrinez is new and this is his first area like me! i got to go on splits with him and help train him! it was so fun! haha i think after this transfwer i might be training!!! woot woot! after this transfer i have to fly back to lima for a few days to go to interpol to get all of my paperwork settled so i can stay in the contry! i think we get to go to the lima temple again! that would be way fun! i love the temple!!!!!!

we are known for having a terrible room here in good ole zarumilla and we got permission from the presdient to change rooms! we are all so so so excited! we are looking for a room right now and think we found one taht would be amazing and better invite the spirit and we could pass help codes! haha if they existed here!

welll this week i got asked by an investigator if i would marry her! hahahaha her name is Rosa she is what we here call a serpiente, or snake! the girls here are a lot more up front about things, a very common thing for the missionaries is to get...ched... this is when the girls in the street go ch ch ch ch ch, this signafies naughty things and we keep walking! ha i had to decline the invitaion to get married as hard as it was hahahah and we are all getting a good laugh about it here! the life of a missionary changes everyday!!!!

well i am making good progress with the language and can speak and understand just about everything, the people when they ask me where i am from i always say lima! haha and then when i mess up on something gramatical or pronunciation they make me confess! it is qutie fun! i am as dark as all the latins and look the part! i love it here!

well i think that this is all for now! i wish you all the best this week and love you all!

Well this week we went to a zoo thingy on the boarder of Equador in a little town called Auguas Verdes!!! we took some sweet pictures with the monkies and the penquins and the bears and stuff! i am sending them out today and i hope you all get them! i wrote and am sending Christmas cards so you all can get a specialized little update haha not a whole lot has happened this week, when we were at the zoo thing there was one of the monkies who had a chain around its waist because he was the bad monkey! he was chasing us around trying to swing the chain at us! Que Loco!!! haha we went with one of the Investigators who lives at the pensionista se llama Manuel. he is really funny we are with him all the time and he is one of our best friends here in zarumilla, well one of the monkies was playing with us and he wasnt watching and the monkey climbed up the bar and peed on him! haha it was so funny we all wish we would have got pictures of it but we missed it! we played with some penguins and a bear they were pretty cool!i miss the cold! haha its getting hotter and hotter here and never seems to cease! we are all dying of heat and walking miles and miles everyday! thats the life of a missionary! i love it! i write in the good ole journal everyday exactly what i am feeling, its funny when i read it becuase it is like an emotional roller coaster! one day i am so happy and everyhing is going so well and the next day we dont have any success and get spit on or chased by dogs or the local gangs try to rob us, its so funny! but everything is going great! mom would you please send in the next package some carry sized pepper spray or something to that effect that would really be helpful! thank you so much!

well this is the end of my first transfer here in the mission... the time here is all different, the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days! during the day while you are walking in the scoldding heat is feels like forever, thats why you work work work to pass the time away, we only have 2 years why waste it right! the weeks fly by and everytime i look at my watch it is the end of the week or another week has gone by!!! i miss you all so much! it is super fun here, no one speaks english and i am forced to speak spanish all the time!!! i am learning so quickly, i can understand almost everything and can say whatever i please for the most part. it is really cool to think that i can speak in another language! before the mission i would hear people speak in spanish and think wow thats so strange what the heck are they saying it sounds like juimble... but now thats how i feel when i write or speak or read english! I tried to pray in english the other day, i teach english classes for the ward every saturday and we were learning how to pray, i tried to pray in english and it was a disaster! i couldnt remember half the words i wanted to say and finally reverted back to spanish! haha it is so weird to think about it...

well the other elders who were in zarumilla had a baptism this week and it was really fun to be a part of! i love attending baptisms! they really are one of the most amazing things in the entire world! the church is so different here though, the reverance level here during sacrament is like primary in the states and there are people talking on the phone and popping ballons and doing all this weird stuff, thats just the culture here, and everything starts late! if you arent 30 minutes late you arent peruvian haha i received a letter from elder andersen in chiclayo this week! we are writting back and forth a little to get the mission updates! he is doing fantastic and had his first baptism his first week! wow how amazing! also this week we found the perfect investigator! golden! her name is matilda she is 60 and was taught all the lessons 4 years ago! but she couldnt get baptized because here marrige paperwork is faulty, we are working to fix it and she would like to be baptized this month! we have 7 baptisms scheduled and we are hoping that 1 of them goes through!

well i am dropping weight like i have it to loose! i think i have gotten my first good ole parasite here in PERU!!! haha heck ya the first one is always the hardest! i am always hungry!!! and for some reason loose all energy exactly 2 hours after eating! and the other day i felt something moving in my stomach! hahah it was a little creepy but i figure there is no leaving this place without one so i might as well embrass it! but no need to be worried all will work and and i am going to be just fine! i love hearing from all of you and am so greatful for your letters it is nice to hear whats going on in the good ole united states! haha

well thats all i can think of if i think of something else i will send it next week! love you all got to go!

Sunday, December 4, 2011

everyday the work continues and i know and can see all the many miracles the lord does for us each and everyday, we are having such a hard time being successful here, this is a newish area and there hasnt been a baptism here in over 6 months!!! wow thats crazy! there are four elders heere and in that amount of time no baptisms... we have been fasting and praying so hard to have success and we are yet to see the results, but we dont get down heartened because we know that one day soon we will find it...

this week my compainion got really really sick and on friday he couldnt hardly walk so we didnt get a whole lot of productive work done which always gets me a little frustrated, when i woke up on saturday he was so sick he couldnt even get out of bed!!!! i was very flustered at this`point but took the opportunity to knee in fervent pray for support. i call hna chipman the presidnets wife and asked what we should do, we got medicine and he was told to spend the whole day in bed, i would have an entire day to study, this was a good and bad thing. i wanted all day to leave and go knock on a door or teach a lesson or talk to someone about this great gosple but i couldnt leave my companion.... so i took the time to read mateo, marcos, lucas, and juan in spanish in the new testiment..,.. the bible is SOOOOO good! if you havent read the bible recently i would encourage you to do so! it is amazing all about the life and works of christ and you learn so much.

one of the many miracles this week happened just last night, my companion and i were in a bit of a heated discussion about obedience and we decided to take a break and relax for a minute, beiung that he is talking really fast in spanish and i cant say everthing i want to in spanish and get upset. i was inspired that zach had given me a libro de mormon for my birthday and that he wrote his testimony in it, i went and got it and read it... he said i dont care if your zone leaders, district leaders, or senior comps are lazy YOU WILL NOT BE!! dont ever stop, when you want to take a 5 minute break RUN to the next door! dont only return with honor show god your honor each and every day of your mission, then you will have success! it was perfect! i read it several times over! then when my comp and i deceided to talk about it agian i read it to him, translating it into spanish and simply said, this is what we need. he agreed!!!! the testimony of one successful ex- elder helpped inspire us to do and be our best! we will continue to press on!

this is the last week of the cambia and it is transfers coming up, so we will all find out when or if we are getting transfered... it is crazy you live 6 weeks at a time in one place and then possibly move to the next...

well the language is coming slowly but surely, i have given quite a few talks in church on the spot and it is starting to become a game for them. they all call me chinito or elder gringo! they love when i talk for some reason, i have good grammer and accent they just think its funny to see an asain american speaking spanish! haha oh boy...

well it is just getting to the hot time of the year here where it rains alllllllll the time and it is 120 degrees!!! ha and the masquitos are terrible!!! dengea is one of the most common forms of death here! so we are all taking the right messures so that we dont get any of that.... but parasites thats another story, eating at members houses is always sketchy because they never really wash anything really well or things like that and a lot fo the food is contaminated, so its not if we get a parasite is WHEN, i love it!!! haha life on the mission is awesome, living in a foregin country. no one speaks english and you are forced to learn how to communicate in another language! every day is full of the spirit! and idk there is nothing better!

First full real week here in Zarumilla, and what an experience it was... first off dad and mom will you please as soon as you read this send my white pants back and the belt. im sorry for the rush and thank you in advance... well i have my new address for all who wish to write and send letters..

is you want to send a package you need to put the name " Elder Rober Swasy" before mine on the box or whatever it is...also if you send a dear elder i get them the following week on monday. dad i got your from the 25th today..and i cant send the memory card home because they will get stolen during customs so im printing pictures to send...sorry

Well thats all that now to the good stuff haha this week was an interesting week. we have a lot of investigators who are progressing and a lot who are really struggling and it kills us.. Hernando is 47 and he is really doing well, he attends church every sunday and calls himself mormon but he would never accept a baptism date and no one could figure out why, we spent an entire lesson bearing our testimonies to him and reassuring him that we are here not to judge but support. he finally admitted to a grave sin that will require a trip to piura this week for an interveiw with presidnet chipman ...a 5 hour bus trip one way ... but we have high hopes for him and we know the lord will provide a way for him..the big thing here to avoid taxes is to not get married but to just live together and call eachother wife or husband and this causes a big problem for us because is they are sexually involved we must first get them married so that they can be living the law of chastity before they can get baptised we are working with 3 families in this situation and working hard and doing our best to get them married haha, ive heard almost every doubt why not to get married since being here! fun stuff haha, one ion particular is Monica. she is 16 and living with and dateing the bishops son, we are working on them getting married this week so she can be baptised on the 20th!!! haha we have 8 investigators with dates but peruvians are easy to make committments and a lot harder to keep them so we are always praying haha if your knees on your pants arent the most torn dirty and mangled part of your pants you arent praying enough here! well one fun experience that happened this week was that i got robbed by a drunk, quite the adventure.. we were at the door of a member who is a preist in the ward and inviting him to come with us on some of our appointments so that he can prepare for the mission. a man hobbled up to us and grabbed me! he had an open container of liquir i dont know what kind but it was very very strong smelling and he was very intoxicated... he had the alchohol and 2 eggs, he grabbed me and started shouting at me in more broken spanish than mine. it was the weirdest feeling when he grabbed me i could feel the spirit leave me and it was like something dark and terrible came over me, one of the worst feelings i have had since being in the mission i hated it.... well he proceeded to shove the eggs in his mouth and them punch himself in the face to crack them. he started chewing them and then swallowed and spit some of the shell out. he kept yelling "soy loco, tengo un problema con la ley de castidad, yo mastubo" he has a problem with chastity lets just say.... but then he chugged the whole thing of liquir and went to grab for my name badge. i hit is hand away and said no way! haha he told me to give him my pen and 3 article of faith cards... thats all he wanted... but he did so while threatening us with a bottle haha, we gladly ablidged his wants and he wrote jehova, amor on one of them, this means jehova love... he gave it to me and started shouting and grabbed my hand we struggled a bit and finally got away, then my comp and i just started running haha we were with him 10 minutes and it was crazy!!! another fun story is that there are crazy dogs everywhere and we get chased by dogs alot and you get some good excersize... idk its the life of the mission there aint anything better...things with my comp are a little rocky at times and i am working on pacientce for sure, i catch him talking about me with other latins and he thinks i dont understand him but i can, he likes to call me a dirty pig...i dont know why haha but we keep progressing... we are always finding ways to serve, we spent yesterday after church at the home of a street contact stripping her walls and sanding and painting the bambo over again, it was fun... good 6 hours of service... it helps us to grow a stronger love for the people here in Zarumilla...we play a lot of soccer here and im not as bad as i had anticipated, given i dont understand all the shouting and whats going on some of the time i figure that as soon as i get the ball to kick it to a team mate im doing ok.....it is really hot here and we are always procoliting in 40 degree weather. everything here is in metrics and celcious but for you there in the states thats roughly 104 degrees and its not even the peak of summer its supposed to get up to possibly 120!!!! of man we are going to be dying here! haha its hard to stay hydrated when you dont have clean water to drink so when we do have water we are very gratful....dad im sending some pictures home in the mail this week and you should get them soon so you can use them for just about whatever hahathe language is coming along just fine... i can read and write and speak just fine its understanding the people that is taking some getting used to! they all speak really quite and they are all really quick talkers.... but poco a poco...little by little i will get better..i read the book of mormon in spanish in 4 weeks in the mtc... one month!!! it was the coolest experience the translation is so different and you get a totally different perspective on things! i love it...well, i dont really know what else to say, im just about out of time so i will have to go!

i love you all and miss you!

small part of testimony in spanish! for all those who can understand haha

how are you all doing? this week has been an adventure that is for sure!

first off i found out that we live kiddie corner to a cock fighting house and every saturday and sunday night they have fights and we can hear all the screaming and chanting and excitment! here it is really normal for that to be your profession a trainer and cock fighter! weird huh..

this week our bed broke and we have been having some fun times with that and all that it intells to have 4 elders living in the same room, zarumilla is very hot and we are all doing really well gettin tan and sweating off every ounce of fat on our bodies so things are pretty good here.

we have been doing tons of service here! we have been digging holes for bathrooms and building houses, painting and stripping houses and my favorite one... today our bishop asked us to skip p-day and work with him in the "campo" this means feild, and we are talking about the crop feilds! where? in Equador!!! hahaha heck ya we worked with him all this morning in the bananna groves, mango groves, papaya and all this way good stuff and we took some good pictures for you all to see and i will send them as soon as i get a chance.

this week we had a investigator named Hernando have his interview to be baptised with our mission president, presidnet chipman.. we were all really nervous for this one becuase he had confessed to a grave sin and we didnt know what action the presidnet was going to take since it took place so long ago. but as soon as he went in we knelt down and prayed as fervently and as sincerly as we could, an hour later the interveiw was over. Hernando is in need of more time to prepare. he attends church everyweek and calls himself a mormon, but his baptism date is this MAY so we are all excited for that time and will continue to do our best to work with him and his needs.

also monica is a 16 year old who is living with and dating the son of the bishop! she is doing so well and wants to be baptized but first needs to get married to live within accordance to the law of chastity and so we are working diligently on getting them married and we hope to talk to her dad this week and seek his permisison since she is a minor and can not wed without his permission.

her mom Rosa came to talk to us the other day because she had concerns about her daughter joining the church and was upset. as soon as we met her there was this great spirit in the room and she started to cry and told us her life story and all these different things. the lesson we taught was one of the best lessons we have ever taught and wer know the spirit was speaking through us. she accepted a baptism date for the 27th that very same day! lesson 1 with us! wow!!!

when we got to church this sunday the bishop asked me if i would prepare a talk for sacrament which was starting right then!!! haha oh boy! well that is the great thing about being a missionary this is what we do all day every day and i was prepared! i spoke for more than the time i was told and felt the assistance of the gift of tounges in the moment in which i needed it most! the miracles we see everyday here are countless. ive been asked to give a bunch of blessings and i feel so overwhelmed becuase i cant speak spanish but as soon as i put my hands on that persons head its like i am fluent. the lord just speaks and i am his micraphone! it is so amazing!

well tonight at midnight we are traveling to Piura for meetings with the President! 5 hour bus ride in the middle of the night!!!! sweet! haha there is nothin glike the life of a missionary! we love every moment! we will return on wednesday night and cant wait to see whats going on in the other part of the mission.

well this is deffinetly the hardest thing i have ever done. you learn to love the people with all your strength and soul.... when someone is hurting you feel pain for them and when someone chooses to not accept the gosple you hurt inside because you know what they are loosing and it is one of the saddest things ever. you have to learn here that rejection is an everyday thing. we dont have a problem with it, we have been spit at, cursed at, chased, robbed, all kinds of crazy stuff, but we wear the name of our lord and savior jesus christ and he proctects each and everyone of us! we have no fear because we are doing the lords work and know that what ever happens is his will.

our pensionista has the cuttest little girl, her name is Risley Lou, we are there 3 times a day for all our meals and are basically part of the family.... Risley plays with us every meal, she is just learning how to walk and is soooooooooooooooooo adorable! haha

well thats all for me and my time is up! still need to write the president! got to go!

First full real week here in Zarumilla, and what an experience it was... first off dad and mom will you please as soon as you read this send my white pants back and the belt. im sorry for the rush and thank you in advance... well i have my new address for all who wish to write and send letters..

is you want to send a package you need to put the name " Elder Rober Swasy" before mine on the box or whatever it is...also if you send a dear elder i get them the following week on monday. dad i got your from the 25th today..and i cant send the memory card home because they will get stolen during customs so im printing pictures to send...sorry

Well thats all that now to the good stuff haha this week was an interesting week. we have a lot of investigators who are progressing and a lot who are really struggling and it kills us.. Hernando is 47 and he is really doing well, he attends church every sunday and calls himself mormon but he would never accept a baptism date and no one could figure out why, we spent an entire lesson bearing our testimonies to him and reassuring him that we are here not to judge but support. he finally admitted to a grave sin that will require a trip to piura this week for an interveiw with presidnet chipman ...a 5 hour bus trip one way ... but we have high hopes for him and we know the lord will provide a way for him..the big thing here to avoid taxes is to not get married but to just live together and call eachother wife or husband and this causes a big problem for us because is they are sexually involved we must first get them married so that they can be living the law of chastity before they can get baptised we are working with 3 families in this situation and working hard and doing our best to get them married haha, ive heard almost every doubt why not to get married since being here! fun stuff haha, one ion particular is Monica. she is 16 and living with and dateing the bishops son, we are working on them getting married this week so she can be baptised on the 20th!!! haha we have 8 investigators with dates but peruvians are easy to make committments and a lot harder to keep them so we are always praying haha if your knees on your pants arent the most torn dirty and mangled part of your pants you arent praying enough here! well one fun experience that happened this week was that i got robbed by a drunk, quite the adventure.. we were at the door of a member who is a preist in the ward and inviting him to come with us on some of our appointments so that he can prepare for the mission. a man hobbled up to us and grabbed me! he had an open container of liquir i dont know what kind but it was very very strong smelling and he was very intoxicated... he had the alchohol and 2 eggs, he grabbed me and started shouting at me in more broken spanish than mine. it was the weirdest feeling when he grabbed me i could feel the spirit leave me and it was like something dark and terrible came over me, one of the worst feelings i have had since being in the mission i hated it.... well he proceeded to shove the eggs in his mouth and them punch himself in the face to crack them. he started chewing them and then swallowed and spit some of the shell out. he kept yelling "soy loco, tengo un problema con la ley de castidad, yo mastubo" he has a problem with chastity lets just say.... but then he chugged the whole thing of liquir and went to grab for my name badge. i hit is hand away and said no way! haha he told me to give him my pen and 3 article of faith cards... thats all he wanted... but he did so while threatening us with a bottle haha, we gladly ablidged his wants and he wrote jehova, amor on one of them, this means jehova love... he gave it to me and started shouting and grabbed my hand we struggled a bit and finally got away, then my comp and i just started running haha we were with him 10 minutes and it was crazy!!! another fun story is that there are crazy dogs everywhere and we get chased by dogs alot and you get some good excersize... idk its the life of the mission there aint anything better...things with my comp are a little rocky at times and i am working on pacientce for sure, i catch him talking about me with other latins and he thinks i dont understand him but i can, he likes to call me a dirty pig...i dont know why haha but we keep progressing... we are always finding ways to serve, we spent yesterday after church at the home of a street contact stripping her walls and sanding and painting the bambo over again, it was fun... good 6 hours of service... it helps us to grow a stronger love for the people here in Zarumilla...we play a lot of soccer here and im not as bad as i had anticipated, given i dont understand all the shouting and whats going on some of the time i figure that as soon as i get the ball to kick it to a team mate im doing ok.....it is really hot here and we are always procoliting in 40 degree weather. everything here is in metrics and celcious but for you there in the states thats roughly 104 degrees and its not even the peak of summer its supposed to get up to possibly 120!!!! of man we are going to be dying here! haha its hard to stay hydrated when you dont have clean water to drink so when we do have water we are very gratful....dad im sending some pictures home in the mail this week and you should get them soon so you can use them for just about whatever hahathe language is coming along just fine... i can read and write and speak just fine its understanding the people that is taking some getting used to! they all speak really quite and they are all really quick talkers.... but poco a poco...little by little i will get better..i read the book of mormon in spanish in 4 weeks in the mtc... one month!!! it was the coolest experience the translation is so different and you get a totally different perspective on things! i love it...well, i dont really know what else to say, im just about out of time so i will have to go!

i love you all and miss you!

small part of testimony in spanish! for all those who can understand haha

well i am here in my first area in the misison feild, it is called zarumilla. it is 5 hours north of piura, i live 7 minutes from the boarder of equador. it is very hot here and this is a very modest place. everyone is quite poor and very thankful for what they have been given in this life. the people are amazing and it is deffinetly humbling being here and not in the states. it is weird to think about. well my comp is elder ipaz he is from columbia he is a really good trainer, he is teaching me the language and i hope to pick it up pretty quick. we have 5 investigators with baptismal dates this month but peruvians are really easy to make promises but harder to keep them, where i am it is really hot and there are nothing but motorcycle taxies here, i think i have seen about 5 cars since being here. they are all crazy drivers too! i love it i wish i got to drive here on my mission. well im sorry about last week they didnt give us time to email.. this is my dia de preparacion, good ole monday

well things here are good, very humble living circumstances and we dont have water during the days and our toilet is kind of broken, you would never imagine how much of a blessing indoor plumbing is until you dont have it... also we teach in little shanties with tin roofs and they are sooooo dang hot, you are just sitting there sweating like crazy tyring to preach the gospel! i love it it is so fun! haha living here makes me appriciate all the stuff that i had when i was in the states that i took advantage of!

well our pensanista is awesome! the food here is amazing but the water is very scarse and you cant drink or use water around here becuase it is not safe! kinda sketchy but hey if i get a parisite them im gonna get all skinny hahahaha jk...

we are allowed to send 4 letters home a month to anyone so i will try to get some letters out when in have time so that you all can havw the mission address but it is hard when you have so little time becuse you are always doing the lords work and spreading his message.

the latin culture is very different and it takes some getting used too.... modesty here means nothing!!! its sketchy, women and men walk around a little more scandalous here and the breat feeding in public sure is different!!!

we were asked to speak in sacrament meeting being that it was my first sunday and they people in the ward were really receptive, i spoke in my broken spanish and everyone was very kind about it! also everyone here loves the fact that i am asian hahah a loit of people call me chinito... which essentially is " little chinese boy" hahaha

this is such a different experience than i have ever had but it is the best one of my life! i love the mission!!!! if anyone reads this and is debating to go on a misison or not GO GO GO GO GO!!!!

well i have some pictures for you and will try to get them sent home so that you all can see what it is like here! a lot of you would love this place and a few of you wouldnt haha mom you wouldnt be able to handle driving here! haha jk i love you!!!

Well this has been an exciting first week here south of the border! first off it is hard to realize that you are over 4.000 miles away from home and everything here is an entirly different culture than what i am used to at home. We arrived in Lima at close to one o}clock in the morning and no one speaks english so that is a different culture shock right away haha we got here to the ccm in lima and got right to work. well technically it was just after 2 am in the morning and we went right to bed but had to get up still at 6:30... im going to apologize in advance because my english is already struggling because i am used to thinking and doing everything in spanish and so it is hard for me to type in english..

Well things here are very much different. our CCM president (CCM is MTC) was in the navy and his first words were ... i run a tight ship around here... he isnt kidding either. there are so many rules here you cant even begin to understand them all... and they are strange too. only one companionship per class during study time, i didnt know about this and me and the other new elders didnt follow this one on the first day, for breaking rules you have to run laps around the CCM. i had to run 5 laps... now i know not to do that one again right. Also here it is very very impolite to eat in public and to not finish all the food that you get so it is very important for us to eat everything that we are given, you will all be so excited to hear that for every single meal we have chicken and rice! haha nothing else.... but the food here is still amazing and i love the culture... we all have latin companions who dont speak english and some of us dont speak spanish well enough to understand. one elder was struggling particularly and apparently ive been doing well because they put me in the advanced group and now im in a trio so that i can help this elder understand spanish. everyone calls me chino becuase i am asain or they call me the translator because i can understand the latins it is kinda funny.. we are required to read the book of mormon during our stay here either in english or in spanish, i chose spanish to help me learn faster... i am in mormon and will be done by this weekend! and I LEAVE FOR THE FEILD ON TUESDAY!!!!!! im so pumped.

well we got the great opportunity to go tracking on saturdays so we are going again tomorrow, it is such a cool experience! we are talking to real people who dont know anything about the gospel!!! this was the best ever, we got in to a home of catholics and they were very sceptical but none the less liked to hear our message, we challenged them to read the book of mormon and attend church on the first visit, they accepted and we got a return appointment for the elders in this area. after taht i was so excited me and my comp were just going to everyone we could find and talking to them! here people love asains for some reason and it helped me at our next home, senora teresa was the next contact that let us into her home. she is soooooo friendly, she said her husband was asain and had passed away and that i reminded her of him. when we entered her house she hugged me and kissed me on the cheek, kind of weird when you are a missionary not gonna lie..... but she was none the less awesome!!!! we talked to her for an hour all about christ and the book of mormon and the gospel...it was great! we gave her a book of mormon and she was so excited to read it and she wanted us to come back but we had to get her contact info and give it to the other elders... we are going again tomorrow and i will have more to report later.

pday here is different, we get to walk around the city and go to the lima temple today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! sick!!!!!!!!!!!!! haha and we are going to talk to the poeple so see whats up in this joint! for all you justin beiber fans out there he was here in lima the other night and gave a concert right next to the CCM, he is a nice kid.... we got to chat with him a little and i gave him a book of mormon!!!! haha scratch preach the gospel to a celebrety off my bucket list right! haha

Also yesterday during soccer i got kneed in the leg and ruptured a vein in my leg and it swelled up with blood to the size of a soccer ball! everyone was kinda freaked out but i thought it was awesome! it is starting to go down a little bit now but it is still big. i got a picture just for you mom! your gomma love it!!! haha

well i have to go for now i have the temple but later i think we will have time during our pday to get back on ill check back in with you all then!

love you all!!!

adios elder davis

p.s. dad i wear your yellow tie anytime i do something cool! so yes your tie has preached the gosple in south america and is going to go in the lima temple and has flown over 6 countries!!!

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Hola como esta mi familia!!!

well today is the first real day here in the ccm in Lima, Peru....

Let me tell you about the trip! i woke up at 4 am early yesterday morning and got dressed and showered and all prepared for the day to come. I reported to the travel office at 4 45 where i received my visa and passport and travel information! there were 11 elders flying to peru and 2 sisters, i was put in charge to be the travel leader and it was a lot of comotion! haha we got on the bus and left just after 5 a.m. then traveled on the bus an hour to the airport and i passed home and everything! it was such a flash back to the civilian life i'll tell you that much! then when we arrived we checked all our luggage and got our tickets and went to the gate, people were making calls home and getting setteled to travel across the country!!! Elder Farnsworth and myself went to go get breakfast in the air port!!!! it was so fun, people love missionaries people always talk to us and are so friendly! when we went to check out the guy in front of us said he wanted to buy our breakfast, he wouldnt let us pay. he was very generous and we thanked him greatly. then we boarded after eating and spent the next 4 hours crossing the country and landing in Atlanta Georgia! it was humid and hot and we were all still so scattered, but we kept track of everyone and everyone got all their needs met and made the next flight just fine. We called home ...sorry if i was unable to call you we only had a few moments to use the phone and they were very expensive to use.... when we landed we were all planning on going to get lunch, a man stopped us and said he wanted to buy us all lunch!!! wow there were 13 of us, we kept thanking him and declining but he wouldnt have it! he got 10 pizzas and 4 boxes of wings and drinks for all of us! that is quite the bill....but he was so generous, then after he paid and then took off without saying a word.... the lord is deffinetly looking out for us while we are wearing these tags. Then i ran into a service men, named patrick, we had about a 10 minute talk before we took off from salt lake to georgia, when i got off the plane in georgia he handed me a letter that he had written while on the plane. in the letter he explained that i had a huge spirit about me and that i would to wonders in peru, he quoted a scripture and told me i was a giant amongst men, it was such an amazing letter i kept it in my journal! then we boarded and took off to peru! it was such an amazing flight! i flew over so many amazing places and you would not beleive the sites i got to witness... a purple sunset above the dark clouds while a thunnder strong loomed below us!!! the cracks of lightning light up the sky! it was awesome and we watched the waves just beat down on eachother!!!! i will never fortget that picture... We arrived at the airport and there were sooooo many poeple there and no one speaks english so we relied on our spanish to get around i love this place!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! more than anything!!!!! i never want to leave! the culture is so deifferent. driving is INSAINE!!! people fly all over and their horn is their favorite thing ever!!! non stop beeeep beeep beeep!!! wild dogs are everywhere and the buildings are all rundown and some are burnt and just look like nothing i had ever seen before it is suck an amazing place to be!!!! if you picture rio in brazil, the large mountains with building climbing the hills! thats this place! the mtc is awesome the rooms are like hotels and they have the coolest veiws... i took pictures so dont you worry, sooner or later ill have them sent out. the food is phenomanal!!!! i love it, they have real chefs cooking for us and it is amazing, but the rules here are super super strict, we arent even aloud to shake hands or touch eachother and stuff its intense. but i love it. my spanish is better tahn i had anticipated i can talk with the locals just fine, i was pleased my that. the money here are soles...its 2.7 soles to the dollar. its so amazing how things work here, temp is in celcius and everything is in kilometers and idk its a whole new world to me! i dont even think i can do it justice describing it without you being here! i wish you were though! this the greatest experience of my life! and i am gonna live here for 2 years!!!! we get to go to the lima temple next week and i will take some good pictures then and sooner or later get the memory card sent home. i love this place and this people more than anything, you can never know how blessed you are until you see a place like this, basic things are huge privillages, i have been and will continue to be truley humbled....this is the greatest life anyone could every live...i will never forget this experience.

i love you all and miss you sooooo much, i am 4000 miles from you but i hope you can still feel my love!

times up!!! idk whats next but it time to have some fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

WELL HELLO EVERYONE!!!! HAHAH HECK YES THIS ENTIRE EMAIL IS GOING TO BE IN ALL CAPS BECAUSE I AM SOOOOOOOOOO STOKED RIGHT NOW!!!!

I FOUND OUT AT 4:30 TONIGHT THAT I RECEIVED MY VISA AND AM GOING TO BE LEAVING TO PERU TOMORROW MORNING AT 5 AM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IM GOING TO BE FLYING TO ATLANTA AND THEN HAVING A 4 HOUR LAYOVER THERE AND I WILL TO MY BEST TO CALL AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE IN THE TIME THAT I HAVE ALONG WITH OTHER ARRANGMENTS I WILL BE NEEDING TO ACCOMPLISH!

THEY DONT SPEAK ANY ENGLISH THERE SO KEEP PRAYING FOR ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IM SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HAPPY!!!!!

I LOVE YOU ALL AND WILL CALL YOU ALL EARLY IN THE MORNING TOMORROW!!!

ANSWER YOUR PHONES IF YOU DONT RECOGNIZE THE NUMBER ITS GONNA BE GOOD OLE ELDER DAVIS!!!!

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Not a whole lot has been happening around here that is too exciting to tell but we have had some cool experiences.

Tuesday Elder M. Russell Ballard came and spoke to us for our tuesday night devotional and it was an amazing talk, that marks the second Apostle that has come to speak to us since being here in the MTC and all of the leaders are saying that has never happened before so it is really cool. My District leader Elder McKay got pretty sick a while back and he asked me and his companion Elder Heath to give him a preisthood blessing one night, that was an amazing experience and i was stoked for the oppertunity to do so.

I was supposed to leave this week to Peru and some of the elders in my district got their visas, Elder Farnsworth and Myself didnt recieve ours and so everyday we listen for the intercom that comes on and announces all the new visa arrivals hoping one day soon it will be our turn to pack up and head out of here! We are so excited to leave and actually get to experience the outside world and know what it is like to spend time with real investigators and other people who arent all in your same situation.

The Language is coming along just fine and i am hoping that sooner or later i feel good enough to talk to everyone all the time in Spanish, we try to talk as much as possible in spanish here but it is hard sometimes when you dont know how to phrase what you want to say and you are required to find an alternate way of saying things. But i am doing well none the less and we are all progressing with the language and being able to teach by the spirit in a language that none of us know. We are teaching Almicar, he is from Equador and is super catholic so trying to get your lesson across with him is sometimes quite the challange, he is receptive to what we are saying we are just having a hard time getting him to accept a baptismal date. On the other hand we are also teaching Antoino, he is from Cuernavaca Mexico, he is a way cool guy and we really relate, he plays for Cruz Azul a semi professional soccer team down there and loves to paint. His baptismal date is set for Oct, 16th and well see how the lessons keep going, at this rate i am confident we are doing alright.

I am getting pretty good at reading preach my gosple in spanish i think i have read most of it and have done my fare share of marking and i think i might actually be getting there! i know a lot more about the gosple that i did when i got into the MTC and it is amazing what kind of questions you will get from investigators or people that dont believe the same way you do! it really is hard for people to understand what it means to be baptized and a lot of people dont believe they can be forgiven of their sins!

Well Elder Girsh came into the MTC yesterday and i have only seen him once and we didnt get to talk for long so i am keeping my eyes peeled so i can run into him and actually get to talk to him for a bit. Elder Anderson and i are still in the same dorm building and everyday is an adventure its kinda just like at home but in a missionary way, the guys in my room and i found a way to play baseball! its legit! haha we found a ping pong ball and a piece of a tube and we get some intesnse games going on! i love it! you can spin that little ping pong ball like none other!!! We are all getting up early and trying to work out as much as we can. Our entire district refuses to get fat at the MTC and just a little heads up after the first week the food is sooooo old! haha you get sick of eating the same things day after day and none of it is remotely close to healthy for you, but none the less you can complain about 3 square meals a day when there are people who dont even have that.

We do this thing called TRC which is basically like home teaching but we get to meet random volunteers and it is really fun, we meet a sister who was origanally from Germany! she was 96!!!! crazy! Her husband has passed and her whole family growing up was communist! it was interesting to hear some of the stories that she had to share with us! i loved it!

We go to the Provo temple every Thurdsay and our sessions are at 10:20... they are open to the public so they get way busy! today there were a ton of people in there but i love to go and feel the spirit so strong, also we have the temple walks at the provo temple everysunday at 1! so if anyone wants to stop and say hi thats the time! haha jk... but we have meet some interesting people at the temples on sunday!

Well the weather here is getting colder and colder and i love it! we get up every morning at 6 and the temperature is perfect! Mom and Dad would you please send me either my red under armor sweet shirt or my black and grey stripped zip up, either one will work just fine i dont need both. I will be sending home some stuff soon that i dont wish to take with me to Peru as i will have no need for sed items. Things here are good though and we are all just moving day to day!

Well thank you everyone for the mail and for all the wonderful things that you send me i love you all and wish you all the best in all that you do!

This has been an eventful week and i have a few stories to tell, i wasn't going to add this to my email but i feel like i should. The end of last week was a little rocky for myself and another Elder named Elder Heath, for some reason we seemed to be not getting along on all the levels that roommates should be. On Friday night after gym time we were all showering and Elder McKay and myself were locked out by Elder Heath and my companion. We sat out there quite a while in frustration. After being locked out for about 10 or so minutes i started to get very frustrated and pound on the door demanding that they let us in, to no avail. Shortly after Elder Heath decided that it would be funny to poke his head out and crack the door and say "no one is here" or "you cant come in" and then promptly slam the door closed again thus adding to my already existent frustration. After about 3 or 4 times of this occurrence i was about at the end of my rope. I saw the door start to crack open again and slammed into it with my shoulder pretty hard. It then flew open and struck elder Heath in the side of the head, well this seemed to trigger something in him. He lost it and we quickly were engaged in a shouting match, i tried to keep my cool as best as i could till some unkind things were said. i then lost my cool and called him a "p...k" inappropriate yes i know and i regret the decision but none the less it happened. Continuing, That did not sit well with elder Heath and he then abruptly lost it again and charged me when i had turned around to walk into the back of the room. All i could tell of the next few moments was i was thrown to the ground and shortly after received a few sharp punches to the face. As fast as they could elder Mckay and my comp elder Beus ran and grabbed him off of me, none the less he was in quite the rage and pursued me again, this time being stopped by elder Mckay with a quick shout. After i got up i realized what had happened and it was at this point where my anger really set in, he yelled a few things at me and then left the room. At this point this was the side show of all the elders in our floor and everyone was gathered around watching. I excused myself and walked to the far stair well and sat and cried for a while. The full emotion of what had just happened had finally hit me!

After a half an hour or so of sitting on the stairs pondering and praying about what had just happened i went back into my room to be met by Elder Heath, we hashed out the much needed apologies and went on our way being missionaries again. at this point i had thought to myself that it was over and that would be the end of that event, but boy was i wrong. I woke up the next morning with a black eye and some regretful feelings to say the least. Also my pinkie toe had been dislocated and fractured but i quickly popped it back into place with the assistance from my comp. i didn't this much of it and when i woke up the next morning it was all black and crukade! haha no bueno, i iced it and bent it back with a few gross pops and some sharp pains and now i think I'll be ok. i didn't want to go to the doctor, (Mom i know you'd love that last sentence :) love you sorry!!!) As was his responsibility our district leader elder McKay reported to the Zone Leaders who then reported it to our Mission President. I got a call from the front office informing me i needed to report to an interview Sunday. when i arrived elders beus McKay heath and myself all had interviews with out mission president about the event. We sat down one by one and all had emotional interviews and the feelings about the air were grim. when i met with my mission president he told me that i would be as was elder heath required to have a meeting with the district president as i was one of the parties involved in the incident. my heart dropped and i lost all control of my emotions, the next 24 hours would be the deciding factor for me as to whether i would remain an elder or not. my focus and stress that night were visible to those members in my district as we all reported to our dorms that night. i asked for a priesthood blessing from my companion and all of the members in my district. Elder beus gave a wonderful blessing and i was grateful for the opportunity to have been a apart of that.

As you can imagine my night consisted of much prayer and pondering and about 2 hours of restless sleep, when i was awoken on Monday the day of my interview, i was so nervous and scared and all kinds of emotions that i couldn't even eat breakfast or concentrate at gym time, right after gym the speaker in our hall came on and the announcer told elder heath and i to report to the district office building, i was so scared and nervous my heart was wrenched. When we arrived we sat down individually and had our meetings with President Sonnie, he only asked one question, "what happened"? after i had described it heath had his interview and then we went in together. i was fearing that i was going to be sent home, when we got in there he told us that he was very disappointed that it happened but he sees great potential in us and that we would be staying, my heart was full. Elder Heath and i both were overcome with emotion and gratitude. We left that meeting and knelt down for a quick prayer outside.. we were going to be given a second chance....

Now the most important part of this is what i learned from it.... First of all there is never in any circumstance an excuse to use your words or physical strength to solve a problem in a hurtful or harmful way. if Elders heath and myself would have stopped and realized this sooner we would have been ok and calmed down. Second i need to learn to be more patient and more forgiving when things are done against me and not feel like i should react in an aggressive way. Third, the lord has a plan for me, i was given struggles like this to help take what i myself am not strong at and make me stronger, i feel as though since this incident elder heath and myself have come closer to one another and also both learned valuable lessons, "you can not teach the gospel of Jesus Christ or the gospel of love if we first do not exercises that ourselves!"

well that is the main story that i needed to tell for this weeks update, also a few other interesting stories around here... We declared room wars and were having prank wars with each other for a little more added fun. i found out how to break into a room using floss, an envelope, a hanger, and a vacuum! haha it is quite the sight to see! we broke into the other rooms dorm and took one of their beds and wrote a fake cleaning check slip. They never pass their cleaning checks and as a result one of them would loose their bed! they totally bought it and showed everyone! immediately a few rooms down the hall we saw elders cleaning and vacuuming and scrubbing down their room! we were cracking up. after about a half an hour they left to go to the front desk in the main building to look for a mattress, we then promptly put his bed back and made it all nice for him and wrote a gotcha note and left it on his pillow! everyone on our floor was cracking up when they saw us moving it back and making it! When elder Jensen came back and saw his mattress he laughed and we all had a good time. to get back at us they broke into our room and set 4 alarms to go off in the middle of the night and they his them all over the room, we got bested! they got us good and we lost a little sleep that night! but we all had fun!

Russell M. Nelson came to speak with us this Tuesday for our devotional and that makes 3 Apostles in 4 weeks! heck ya we are super lucky and they all gave amazing talks! I didnt know how funny they are... this weeks talk was centered around the October special edition of the Ensign. This months edition is all about the book of Mormon! the history, the stories, the book itself, everything!!! i encourage you all to read it! it was soooooooo good! they gave us all our own copy and asked us to read it before the devotional! i loved it! Also i am reading the BOM in Spanish only and it is SLOW but it adds a new dimension to it! the translation is so much more direct and simple i love it! it gives me a different outlook on the way i study and read the BOM.

Well i still havent heard any news from my Visa and time is just ticking by, i think the reason that it didn't come in the first place was because i needed to learn from all the experiences ta ht the lord had in store for me here! and i know that in time and on the lords time it will come when i am needed to teach the people of Peru!

I love hearing form you all and hope and pray that you are all doing well. thank you for all the letters and packages you are all so supportive and i love you with all my heart! i am out of time for now!

I was very tempted to write this in spanish but i know that only a few would be able to understand what i was trying to say! so i faught against the erge and maybe some other time!

I wanted to start off by wishing good ole Dakaota a HAPPY BIG 18th BIRTHDAY! dang you are an old fart! i sent you a pack of depends in the mail!!! haha ok that wasnt that funny... love you buddy and hope you have a great day tomorrow!

Now on with the letter! This week has been some more ups and downs for me, the lord keeps giving me opportunities to learn and grow in all the areas he and i both know that i need. This week whilst in class Elder Heath got heated during one of our district meetings to clear any disputes or things that upset us during the week... He was a little flustered and Elder Jensen made the suggestion that someone calm him down, i asked him to take a minute to calm himself before we continued the meeting. that again didnt seem to sit well with Elder Heath and he got even moer frustrated and started to yell at me and in the end called me some inappropriate names. took a moment to pause and learned from this last experience and took the opportunity to walk out and go get a quick drink of water before any feelings were escalted! that seemed to be the end of that situation and i thought it was handled well.. 3 members in our district made a pack with one another that whenever they were to speak in english they would be required to carry this large rock around with them where ever they went until another one of the spoke in english to take the rock. the 4 remaining elders myself included deceided to decline from this way of motivation of sorts. During lunch my companion Elder Beus had the rock as a consequence of speaking in english. Then Elder Heath said something and everyone laughed and said your turn to carry the rock. i had just gotten my food and returned to the table upon seeing Elder Heath receive the rock. Elder Farnsworth said you better hope someone speaks in english or you are going to have to take the rock to gym! i said ""oh ya heath you better hope someone does, becuase taking the rock to gym would suck".... i didnt think that that was an over the top statement but i guess to him it was perseived in such a manner. upon hearing this Elder Heath burts into anger as fast as you can flip a light switch! he choose the best way of releasing this anger would be to throw his cookie at me in the middle of the lunch room! i was not expecting this and it was not well received! but i learned to bit my tounge and calm my frustrations agian and simply stated "lets not act like we are in 4th grade and throw food, we are more mature than that." i stood up and walked away...Well nothing around here goes without a meeting with someone in athority and as you can guess Elder Heath and Myself had meetings with our zone leaders last night... but the difference this time is that since in both situations i was not involved in escalating the situation i was called in to give my side of the story! also my entire district got to give an opinion on the matter and seeing how i was not at fault in these confrentations i didnt receive punishment, none the less i am constantly frustrated with the fact that i am put into these types of situations in which i am seen as a problem elder... i have learned from all of this and have done well keeping my cool.. pray for me though i am having a hard time being with Elder Heath 24/7...well that was my update on that situation for the week, i pray for you all and hope all is going well at home!

Well we arent allowed to speak in english anymore from this time forth and we are all progressing in spanish quite quickly! we are all learning so much.....

Our teacher had 2 younger sisters one is 20 and one is 18! he told us to write them! i am the only who did! it was a funny letter! i told them how i was raised by pigmes in the sahera and then i moved to sun city and changed my name to flynn rider and then becuase a criminal named vector and all this stuff! i made referance to 8 movies it was super funny!

Friday, September 16, 2011

On Sunday August 21st. Skyler Gave his talk in sacrament, he did a great job! I was very impressed with his comments, sincerity and poise. afterward we had an open house with a probably 50+ people coming thru to wish him well. mostly young women

On August 23rd, Skyler was set apart as an Elder and full time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He had a wonderful blessing from our Stake President President Burton.

On August 24th, we said our goodbyes as we dropped him off at the MTC in Provo Utah. He was ready and excited to be there full of smiles !!!!!